Between two worlds

Everything has changed. Nothing has changed. I vacillate between the two every day I am here. We have a cook and two kindly women who come to clean. There is a Sephora and even a Wetzel’s Pretzels in the mall we visited yesterday.I have seen ordinary looking people spend more money than I earned in a month when I worked in television eleven years ago. We buy what we need, secure in the rate of dollar conversion. I have tired myself out as the family communicator, often people cannot understand a word my husband speaks. He is busy learning Hindi on Rosetta Stone.Our home has the bare minimums required to live. How much does a man need? The monsoon mornings are cool and windy. I do yoga on a mat before the children wake. The winds, the birds, the open patio doors- this I love. I write when I can. India has skyscrapers and malls. India has children knocking on your car window asking for food. My husband went back to the doctor for a follow up today. She charged him nothing for the visit. “Why?” I wondered. An old man sleeps in the rain under a covered bus stand. “Does he sleep soundly?” The rains in Pune keep this city cool. I have carried myself here, to my country, I say. I am Indian but then really I am not anymore. I am an American now. The conundrum continues, I am looking for the key.

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2 thoughts on “Between two worlds”

Chandra, your blog has inspired me to start a new one on the diurnal: thisthathereandnow@wordpress.com. It helps to key in at least 500 words per day. It doesn’t matter whether you are Indian or American. You are Chandra and I love reading your posts!

This seems to be the email id for the blog you sent Archana. Send me the link again? Yes, it is lovely to write every day but remember we have a promise to send fresh chapters to each other? Shall we put a deadline and date on that?